Select Committee Inquiry - The New Local Enterprise
Partnerships (England)
From: Business, Innovation and
Skills Committee
Date announced: 15
July 2010
Evidence due: 13 August 2010
Semta submission: 13 August 2010
Summary
The Business, Innovation and Skills Committee has announced that
its first inquiry of the new Parliament will be into the New Local
Enterprise Partnerships.
The inquiry will examine how the proposed new structure will
work, alongside issues such as distribution of funding, value for
money, accountability, timing, transitional arrangements and
required legislation.
Topics the Committee will consider include:
- The functions of the new Local Enterprise Partnerships and
ensuring value for money
- The Regional Growth Fund, and funding arrangements under the
LEP system
- Government proposals for ensuring co-ordination of roles
between different LEPs
- Arrangements for co-ordinating regional economic strategy
- Structure and accountability of LEPs
- The legislative framework and timetable for converting RDAs to
LEPs, the transitional arrangements, and the arrangements for
residual spending and liability of RDAs
- Means of procuring funding from outside bodies (including EU
funding) under the new arrangements
Next steps
The government responded to the Committee's recommendations and
findings on 23rd February 2011. Of particular interest is
their views on the LEP role relating to skills:
We welcome the Government’s intention that LEPs should
be encouraged to work effectively to meet local skills demands.
Without distracting from their aim of fostering enterprise and
removing barriers to growth, LEPs can clearly have it on their
radar to identify both opportunities and gaps and should work with
local training providers to address those objectives. (Paragraph
72)
16. The Government agrees with this and is
already encouraging local enterprise partnerships to work closely
with further education and higher education providers, and vice
versa, as well as with employers, Jobcentre Plus and learning
providers.
Further education involvement in LEPs seems to us to be
particularly important to addressing skills gaps, while higher
education involvement makes sense from the point of view of
encouraging ideas for LEPs to use in innovation. We believe that
LEPs should consider co-opting representatives of further education
and higher education onto their governing bodies, either
permanently or on an ad hoc basis. (Paragraph 73)
17.
The Government is encouraging local enterprise partnerships to work
closely with universities, further education colleges and training
providers, who play such a key role in local economies. As
partnerships set up their boards, we anticipate that many will want
to include a university or further education representative.
However, the Government has not set a specific requirement for
further education and higher education involvement in local
enterprise partnership boards, and it will be up to each
partnership to determine the most appropriate model for their
interaction with other key local economic players such as higher
education and further education institutions. Similarly, the
Government will also continue to encourage partnerships to consider
the diversity of representation on their boards and ways of
attracting suitably qualified women.
Documents and Links
Government response to report
Committee
report
Semta
submission
Other
submissions to the inquiry
BE
Committee press notice on the inquiry
Semta represents the views of our employers across government
and the media. If you are an employer in the science,
engineering, or manufacturing technology sectors, we welcome your
views at policy@semta.org.uk
Updated 25 February 2011